


Love at Frost Sight

by Demerite



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Inspired by Hallmark Christmas Movies, M/M, shameless fluff, terrible flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:18:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21986764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demerite/pseuds/Demerite
Summary: Orthopaedic surgeon Leonard McCoy takes a locum job to fill the void of a Christmas without his daughter, Jo. The only thing he, he might just have stumbled into the most Christmas-obsessed town in the world, where his lack of good cheer is at best, disappointing, and at worst, a personal insult. Enter Jim Kirk, a young man determined to make Leonard see that the magic of Christmas is real after all.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Philip Boyce/Christopher Pike
Comments: 14
Kudos: 85





	Love at Frost Sight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aishahiwatari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aishahiwatari/gifts).

> Demi? Posting a Christmas fic on December 28th? It's more likely than you think! 
> 
> This is my Christmas gift to Aisha because she's amazing and because she did something wonderful for me.
> 
> [Also no, the title is a not a typo, it's a pun...you know, because it's cold at Christmas?....I'll show myself out].

It's a week before Christmas, and Leonard McCoy is standing outside an empty airport terminal in what feels like the most remote town in America, freezing his ass off, waiting for a taxi that he's pretty sure isn't going to show. It's started snowing since he arrived, and even hunched in his coat, the chill is starting to beyond uncomfortable to actually quite dangerous.

There are no taxis to be seen. Scratch that, there are no _people _to be seen, either. Which isn't great news for Leonard, because he's supposed to getting a taxi to a local bed and breakfast until he can make his way to the children’s hospital tomorrow morning to start the locum job he'd picked up from the holiday season. It's not something he'd usually do, but a colleague of a colleague had needed someone to cover for a few weeks, and it was better than sitting in his empty apartment while his offices were closed for the Christmas to new year period. And with Joanna off with her mom and stepdad, it wasn’t like he had anyone to spend the holiday with anyway.

So now he’s here, freezing his ass off at nine-thirty at night in the middle of what feels like absolutely nowhere. And to top it all off, there’s a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the roundabout past the taxi rank, lights twinkling merrily at him. Leonard glares at it.

That’s when he notices the truck. It’s a little beat up, a little old, but it circles the roundabout and heads straight towards where he’s standing. It’s the only vehicle in sight. Leonard watches it, cautious.

The truck stops beside him, and Leonard is instantly alarmed. He’s slightly less alarmed when a young man pokes his head out and looks directly at him, his blue eyes almost seeming to shine in the light reflected from the Christmas tree’s overdecorated form.

“Are you Doctor McCoy?” He calls out.

“Yes,” Leonard says after a brief hesitation. No harm in someone knowing his name, right? Especially not someone so good-looking. Not that good-looking people are more trustworthy. Leonard has known some absolutely gorgeous assholes in his time.

“Figures. No local would be glaring at a Christmas tree like it had insulted his mother.” The man says with a smirk that borders on cocky, “You want a ride?”

“What?” Leonard is momentarily caught up in that smirk,

“Into town.” The man rolls his eyes like it should be obvious to the stranger that he’s offering him a lift into town.

Leonard gives him a long, suspicious look. "How do you know my name?" He finally asks.

"Relax, Phil told me you were coming." The man says, with a soft laugh.

“You know Phil Boyce?” Leonard questions, still a little suspicious.

“It’s a small town, everyone knows everyone.” The man runs a hand back through short blond hair and fixes Leonard with a firm gaze. “Now do you want a lift or not?”

Leonard hesitates for a second longer, but it’s freezing out here, and he still hasn’t seen any other sign of life. “Fine.” He decides.

“Great, throw your stuff in the back and jump in!” The man gestures over his shoulder, and Leonard swings his case up into the back of the truck. There’s a little snow in there, but the case is waterproof, a little snow won’t hurt it.

“I’m Jim, by the way. Jim Kirk.” The man says when Leonard opens the passenger side door.

“Leonard McCoy,” Leonard replies. He goes to climb into the passenger seat and then stops, eyes caught by the solid head, wide mouth, and lolling tongue of a black and brown dog, curled in the footwell.

“Don’t mind Rudy, he’ll move,” Jim says, jerking his head in the direction of the dog, who, as if in answer to his voice, thumps his crooked tail against the floor a couple of times.

“Rudy.” Leonard raises his eyebrows.

“Short for Rudolph.” Jim honestly seems pleased with himself over it.

“As in the reindeer?” Leonard doesn’t _really _want to ask, but there’s some near-morbid curiosity to that presses him to find out if Jim really has named his dog after a reindeer from a Christmas song.

“Obviously!” Jim puts the truck back into gear and pulls away from the curb before Leonard really has his seatbelt on.

“Obviously,” Leonard mutters darkly to himself.

“You really don’t like Christmas, do you?” Jim questions as he pulls the vehicle out of the airport’s front entrance.

“I’m spending it here instead of with my daughter, what do you think?” Leonard growls back. He’s not sure why he’s telling Jim about it.

“Ah.” Jim shuts up for a moment, looking so chastised that Leonard can’t help but feel a little guilty. Jim’s nice, and he’s gone out of his way to help Leonard out in the middle of a freezing cold winter night, the least Leonard can do it try to be polite to him.

“It’s fine.”He sighs, “I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“No, I get it.” Jim replies, “It’ just that Christmas is kind of a big deal here. We get a lot of our tourism because of it, which generates a _lot _of local income. Lotta folks who run small businesses are relying on the Christmas trade to get them through the off-season.”

Leonard mutters something that might be a ‘yeah whatever’, and Jim gives him a curious look.

“I know it’s important.” Leonard clarifies, “Doesn’t mean I’m gonna be all cheerful about it though.”

“Sure.” Jim agrees quickly, “A lot of people get really excited about it. No-one’s gonna expect you to be totally hyped all the time or anything, but there’s a certain amount of cheer going around. We do a big event at the children’s hospital on Christmas Eve, handing out presents and stuff, everyone gets involved.”

“Even you?” Leonard raises his eyebrows.

“Yep.” Jim says, popping the ‘p’ just a little bit obnoxiously.

Leonard can’t help but laugh a little at the mental image.

“What?” Jim turns towards the lights of what Leonard assumes has to be the town.

“Can’t really see you playing Santa, that’s all.”

“Oh no, my godfather does that.” Jim says with a smirk, “I’m usually an elf.”

Leonard makes a startled spluttering noise at the concept.

“What can I say, I look good in a pair of tights,” Jim adds, shooting him a wink.

Leonard freezes for a moment because that’s a mental image he…doesn’t quite know how to deal with. Of course, he’d noticed that Jim is hot from the moment he’d laid eyes on him, but that’s not something he can think about in front of a near-stranger. Even an attractive near-stranger who is almost certainly flirting with him.

“I bet you do.” His traitorous mouth says before his brain can catch up with it.

Jim lets out a startled bark of laughter, and then has to focus on the road, navigating around a car parked too far out from the curb, “So you’re in town for the Children’s, yeah?” He finally asks.

“Yeah,” Leonard confirms. The Children’s is the main hospital here, there’s a smaller general hospital, but he knows that the most severe cases are driven or flown elsewhere.

“What’s your speciality?” Jim asks.

“Orthopaedics.” Leonard explains, “So bones.”

Jim shoots him a bright smile, taking his eyes off the road again to do it. “I know what orthopaedics is. I might be a mechanic, but I’m not that dumb.” His tone goes from pleased and a little flirtatious to hurt and cautious in less than a heartbeat.

“Never said you were,” Leonard says, placatingly. He wants that hurt tone to leave and never come back.

Jim mutters something that sounds a little like, ‘you’d be the first’, but doesn't object beyond that. “So where’re you staying?”

Leonard tells him.

“Oh yeah, I know the place.” Jim nods, swinging the truck aggressively around a corner and into a side street, fast enough that Leonard has to grab for the door handle to steady himself.

Only minutes of Jim’s slightly terrifying driving later, they pull up in front of the B&B.

“Thanks for the ride,” Leonard says, climbing down from the cab and reaching back t retrieve his suitcase. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, see you ‘round, Bones!” Jim waves, and is gone before Leonard can really register, or react to, the nickname.

***

Leonard settles into the job easily enough. Work is work, and while there’s a different team to get used to, and different local practices, it’s very much what he’s used to at his regular job. Admittedly, it’s been a while since he’s worked fully in a hospital; usually, he consults part-time from his office and spends the other half of his week on the wards and in theatre, but it’s not wholly unfamiliar.

The team are generally friendly people, and Phil Boyce, who Leonard has heard of but never formally met until now, gives him a warm welcome. So it’s nowhere near as bad as Leonard had feared it could be, even if every single ward is covered with tinsel and fairy lights and Christmas trees, and most of the nursing staff are routinely spotted wearing scrubs featuring gingerbread or candy canes or reindeer. So apart from the overwhelming amounts of festive cheer, it’s bearable.

At the end of the first week, Phil invites him over for dinner with him and his husband. Leonard isn’t sure what to think of that, but he’s getting sick of going back to the same room at the end of the workday, eating the same food, and watching the same selection of shitty shows on his Netflix before sleeping, so he agrees.

***

The house is a perfectly normal house, and Leonard honestly isn’t sure what he was expecting, because, like the other houses in the street, it’s decorated for Christmas. Lights are strung up around the porch and over the roof. There’s a wreath on the door. Leonard can see the shape of a Christmas tree, wrapped in yet more softly glowing lights, through the front window.

He’s invited inside by Phil and introduced to Phil’s husband Chris, who is somehow simultaneously exactly the person Leonard would have imagined Phil to be married to, and also the last person he ever would have thought of.

“Wine?” Chris offers, holding up a bottle, and Leonard surpasses the urge to say ‘god yes’ because today has been a _very long _day.

“Yes, thanks.” He says instead.

He’s just accepting the generously-filled glass that Chris hands him along with an understanding wink when he hears the front door open, and a familiar voice call out,

“Sorry I’m late!”

Already sure he knows who it is, Leonard follows Chris and Phil out of the kitchen and into the hall, and sure enough, Jim is closing the door behind him and stamping snow off his boots, his cheeks pink from the cold.

“Sorry,” He says again, shrugging out of a dark green jacket, “Traffic was shit.”

“You.” Leonard can’t help but say. He doesn’t think he says it loud enough, but apparently he does.

“You two know each other?” Chris questions.

“I gave him a ride back from the airport last week.” Jim grins, “Hey Bones, how're you settling in?”

“Bones?” Phil asks.

Leonard just groans.

***

The rest of the evening goes well. Chris and Phil are fantastic hosts, and Leonard and Jim’s verbal sparring appears to be intensely amusing for everyone, both spectators and participants, even if the subject of Christmas itself is largely avoided.

Phil and Chris wave them goodnight from the front porch as Leonard starts the walk back to his accommodation.

“Really?” Jim asks him when he sees Leonard start to go, “I’m right here, I can give you a ride again.”

“Thanks.” Leonard sighs, because yeah, it’s freezing out here, “You’re making a habit of this.”

Jim laughs, but he doesn’t object. They drive in silence for a little while, and Leonard looks out the window, watching the lights on all the houses and in front yards glowing softly as they pass.

“How’re you finding the Children’s?” Jim asks after a few minutes.

“Intense. Rewarding. Overly festive.”

“It’s definitely all of those things.” Jim agrees with a short laugh, “But that’s not a bad thing, really. Those kids, a lot of them really need a little Christmas cheer...I know I did.” There’s something soft and almost…wistful in his tone.

“You were a patient.” Leonard realises. It makes sense, why Jim is so attached to Christmas, especially the idea of a Christmas for the patients at the children’s hospital.

“Yeah, when I was 14.” Jim shrugs, “I spent Christmas there pretty much on my own, Phil was working and Chris wasn’t on the scene back then and my parents…” He trails off. Leonard has worked with enough kids to knows how people talk about neglectful parents, “Well, I was pretty glad about it being Christmas, and actually getting to _have _Christmas.” Jim finished a little lamely.

Leonard digests this silently.

“So uh, that’s a big part of why I volunteer for the Christmas party there now, you know. I wanna be able to give something back.”

Leonard smiles at him, “I’ve been watching things get set up for the last week.” He admits, because he has. He’s been sticking his head into the meeting room that’s been repurposed for the celebration from time to time, half-hoping that Jim might have been involved with the set-up, “The kids are gonna love it.”

“I hope so,” Jim admits quietly.

Jim pulls the truck up in front of the B&B, and they sit in silence for a moment. Leonard doesn’t want to leave, wants to stay in the truck next to Jim and talk about things that are maybe a little too vulnerable for either of them to be sharing.

Jim looks over at him, and Leonard is caught up in his blue eyes, in the reflection of the glowing Christmas lights outside in them. Jim sways towards him, just a little, and for a heartbeat, Leonard thinks that Jim is going to kiss him.

It’s that thought, that hope, that spurs him to speak again.

“I, uh…I was wondering if you wanted to…” Leonard starts. This is ridiculous. He shouldn’t be doing this. He’s not going to be staying here more than a week or two after the new year.  
  
“Yes.” Jim says with a smile, “I’d love to get a drink with you after Christmas is over.”

“You don’t know that was what I was gonna ask.”

“Was it?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’d love to.”

They exchange numbers quickly, aware of the late hour. Leonard is just slipping his phone back into his coat pocket and preparing himself to open the door and step out into the cold when Jim leans across the centre console and presses his lips quickly to Leonard’s cheek.

“I’ll see you ‘round, Bones.” He says with a smile.

***

Leonard goes to bed late and his sleep is restless, filled with blue eyes and warm lips and _Jim. _

He’s not expecting to be woken the following morning, before his alarm, by his phone ringing, or for the call to be from Jim.

For a moment, he just looks at it, and wonders if Jim’s come to his senses and has decided that starting…anything with someone who is going to be leaving in less than a month is a bad idea after all, and wants to call the whole potential date off. He contemplates not answering it, but he’s not a coward, so after a few more seconds, he picks up the phone, and grunts out an ill-tempered greeting.

“Thank fuck, you picked up.” Jim sounds breathless and anxious, and Leonard is instantly a lot more awake.

“Jim? You okay?” He asks, sitting up in bed and kicking the blankets away.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Jim reassures, “Look, I need a favour?”

“Oh lord. What have you done?” Leonard asks, wary.

“I…I’m offended you’d assume it was me.” Jim splutters.

“Was it?”

“No!”

Leonard can’t suppress the surprised snort of laughter that escapes.

“Look, Chris broke four ribs last night.” Jim’s voice has turned serious, but calmer than before.

“What?” Leonard’s mind immediately switches tracks. “How?”

There’s grumbling from the other end of the phone line, and Phil’s voice chimes in, sounding fainter, like he’s further off, “He decided that instead of ‘bothering’ the fire department, he was going to rescue our neighbour’s daughter’s kitten from up a tree last night after you left.”

“Lord.” Leonard mutters to himself again. He might have only known Chris Pike for one evening, but he can already see how that’s exactly the sort of thing he’d do.

“I’m fine!” A voice Leonard can identify as Chris’ calls, sounding even further away. He must be on speaker.

“You’re not!” Phil calls back, but there’s warmth in his voice. “He _will _be fine, eventually.” He adds to Leonard.

“But someone needs to play Santa for the Christmas party.” Jim talks over Phil’s report. There’s a brief scuffling, and then Jim’s voice is clearer, “Sorry, took the phone off of Phil.”

“Why do you need _me_?” Leonard asks, “Surely there’s someone else?”

“There _isn’t_.” Jim mutters, a little viciously, “Literally everyone is tied up with this, or with the service at the church, or with the soup kitchen, or with getting ready for dinner at the town hall.”

“_Jim_.” Leonard starts, but Jim cuts him off ruthlessly.

“Please.” He says, “You’ve _got _to know how much it means to these kids. It’s the only Christmas a lot of them are gonna get.”

Leonard sighs.

Jim seems to take that as an agreement. “Great! It’s only for like, two hours, you just need to wear the suit and sit in a chair and hand out presents, maybe do a couple of photographs, and then the hospital staff will take over the rest of the evening.”

“Jim-”

“It’s really easy stuff, I promise, and I’m gonna be there the whole time so I can help out.”

Leonard remembers Jim’s comment about being an elf and looking good in tights. And okay, maybe that will make it a little bit worth it. That, and he’ll get to see Jim again, something that he realises now he’s actually excited about.

“I’ll do it.” He says and has to hold the phone away from his ear at Jim’s delighted whoop.

They work out the details over the next few minutes, and then Leonard looks at the time and swears because he has to get ready to head over to the hospital for his shift, lest he risks being late.

***

“Thank you so much for doing this.”

Leonard turns around and nearly chokes on his terrible fake beard.

Jim is wearing a green velvet tunic that doesn’t reach _nearly _far enough down his thighs, leaving the red and green tights that seem to be practically painted on the show entirely too much of the shape of Jim’s well-muscled thighs and calves. A pointed red hat, and boots with curled toes, both adorned with merrily jingling bells, complete the ensemble. Leonard is sure that the outfit isn’t even moderately appropriate for a children’s hospital party.

“Sure, no problem.” He manages to grumble in reply, glad that the beard is hiding how red his cheeks seem to have gone.

“So you’ll just sit up here,” Jim gestures to a chair that’s been draped with a few decorative cloths and set in front of a festive backdrop, “And the kids will come up, and you just have to ask their name and if they think they’ve been good and hand them a gift.” He gestures to the piles of wrapped and labelled presents, “And I’ll hand you the right ones, don’t worry, it’s gonna be fine.”

Leonard gives him a sceptical look, but it’s too late to back out now.

“Come on Bones, it’s gonna be fun!” Jim insists.

“Right,” Leonard mutters.

***

The room slowly empties, the nurses and parents and other costumed elves escorting the children back out. Leonard slumps back in his chair, relaxing for the first time since the doors had opened and the children were allowed in.

Once the doors click shut again, Jim turns to grin at him, bright and elated.

“We did it!” He says, every inch of him radiating excitement.

“Sure did.” Leonard tries to make it sound like a grumble, but it doesn’t quite come out that way.

Jim gives him an appraising look and then steps up closer to him until he’s standing over Leonard, a smirk on his handsome face.

“_You _did it.” He adds, “Thank you.”

“Yeah well, you made it damn hard to concentrate.” Leonard gives Jim a meaningful look, and Jim laughs, his cheeks colouring just a little.

“That might have been on purpose.” He admits.

“I gathered that,” Leonard says dryly.

“So.” Jim says, with a comical fluttering of his eyelashes, “Am I on the naughty list?”

“Why don’t you sit on my lap and find out?” Leonard offers, inwardly cringing at himself, “Tell me, do you think you’ve been-”

He’s cut off by Jim doing just that, all but throwing himself into Leonard’s lap and kissing him, hands shoving the fake beard out of his way in his haste. Leonard grabs at Jim’s back to steady him, and Jim just settles further into his lap, not breaking the kiss, his legs straddling Leonard’s thighs.

It’s a precarious position to be in, which is what Leonard tells himself when he gets his hands on Jim’s ass to steady him, fingers digging into the flesh underneath those fucking tights. He’s willing to lose himself in this kiss, in Jim, at least for a few moments.

Unseen to both of them, the door cracks open again, and Phil sticks his head inside, looking for his errant godson and missing locum doctor. When he sees the sight at the other end of the room, he has to fight to suppress a snort of laughter.

“They coming?” Chris asks from behind him.

“Maybe in a little while,” Phil admits, trying not to laugh at the unintentional innuendo.

“What?” Chris pushes past him and sneaks a look into the room. “Ah.” He says, backing away, “Well, best leave them to it.”

“They're going to be late to the town hall.” Phil points out.

“So let them be late.” Chris takes his husband’s arm with his good one, careful to keep his injured side still, “Like we weren’t just as bad, once.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on [Tumblr](https://demerite.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
